Moray Council told to ditch Harry Potter language

Scot council officials have been told to stop using baffling “Harry Potter” language and speak in plain English instead.

Council leaders say legal terminology can seem like 'Harry Potter' language to most people. Picture: Neil Hanna

Moray Council leader Allan Wright made the plea after it emerged some residents quizzed during a satisfaction survey said they had been confused by ancient Latin phrases like ‘avizandum’*.

And even the local authority’s legal chief admitted that at times officers got “carried away” and used terminology which would leave lay people bamboozled.

One respondent said the council appeared to have “forgotten” it actually operates a plain English policy.

The head of the local authority’s legal and democratic services, Rhona Gunn, said she understood Councillor Wright’s concerns about the issue.

She admitted that, at times, lawyers did get carried away with legal jargon.

She said: “Plain English can be a challenge for lawyers, many of whom were trained to use Latin terminology.

“Words that lawyers are familiar with, like avizandum, sound more like something from a Harry Potter film to most people.

“Staff in legal services are alert to these tendencies and will make every effort to think about the language used from the perspective of our customers.”

Cllr Wright said: “As a former journalist, Plain English is something I get exercised about.

“I have tried to make it my business to make sure reports are written for councillors and for the public to understand.

“A greater understanding of council reports does lead to a greater understanding of the council.

“My current bete noire is the overuse of the word ‘incredible’.

“It’s all over the place - on TV and radio you hear commentators all the time talking about things being incredible when we have just seen them happen.

“There was one really good one from Clare Balding the other day and it was ‘absolutely incredible’.”

He gave an example from the Moray local review body report of August, 2014 which stated: “The site is in an area of open landscape and as an addition to the existing consents and newly completed houses in the vicinity there would be a detrimental impact on the rural characteristics of the landscape, and the proposal would contribute to an urbanisation of the setting.”

A spokesman for the Plain English Campaign said: “Plain English gives us the best chance to process and understand information the first time we hear or read it and that us why the precise, accurate and accessible use of our language is so important.

“I sometimes think there is a conspiracy between the jargon, small print and gobbledegook gangs to produce writing which is incomprehensible to most people.

“Language fails when it is beyond the reach of its intended audience and this might include those with visual difficulties, the elderly or those whose first language is not English.”

* Avizandum, from the Latin ‘avizare’, “to consider”), a Scots law term; the judge “makes avizandum with a cause,” i.e. takes time to consider his judgment.